“I can barely afford to live here in Ontario myself right now.

....turn off power from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday...Jan 13

Sharon Chartrand not only has to make tough decisions between her energy bills and other expenses, but which rooms in her Whitefish home to heat.

"We have to heat one room at a time," Chartrand said. "I've got a curtain on my porch, so I don't have to heat my porch and I can keep my living room warm, things like that."

It's just one more way the cost of living has become too high under Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government, Chartrand said, and one more reason why Ontarians need to fight back against rising utility costs.

A key focus for Chartrand is the cost of hydro. A retiree who receives a $900 Canada Pension cheque per month, she told The Star her hydro bill for the same period regularly tops $400, leaving little for other expenses, and the HST rebate announced last year by Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault, the provincial energy minister, has made little difference.

"I feel that Premier Wynne is causing debt traps for Ontarians, and Mr. Glenn Thibeault, our MPP here in Sudbury, no one is helping us," Chartrand said. "They're sinking us and pushing us to look at other avenues for survival. We're not living anymore; we're in survival mode now.

"I can barely afford to live here in Ontario myself right now. People are soon going to be leaving their homes and families to go elsewhere to live, because prices of gas, food, hydro will and have already caused bankruptcy for a lot of people. They're using every means at their disposal to pay their bills, maxing out their credit cards, used all their life savings, and it's still not enough."

Chartrand joined a group called Hydro One - Enough is Enough, which boasts more than 30,000 members on Facebook, and she has organized protests in Greater Sudbury against the rising cost of hydro. She has also taken part at rallies and marches, such as one on Thibeault's office this past fall.

On Friday, Chartrand will join with Hydro One - Enough is Enough members for another protest which will see them turn off their power from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in an attempt to get both the provincial utility and the government's attention.

"We're asking people to shut off their power and plan to go shopping in that hour, go skating, go to a movie, play outside with your grandkids, take a walk with your pet, go visit someone you haven't seen in a while," Chartrand said. "I know it's in the middle of January, but I know it will not affect our water pipes, it will not affect our foundations, et cetera, but it will get the attention of our Liberal government."

For more information about the protest, find Hydro One - Enough is Enough on Facebook.

"We're looking for someone to show some understanding and compassion and empathy," Chartrand said. "The good old Canadian way."

STT tends to leave the debate about global warming or ‘climate change’ to others.

However, STT has always thought that if man-made CO2 emissions really were destroying the planet, then sensible governments would have moved to build nuclear power plants from the moment the Chicken Littles started wailing about the heavens collapsing.

The French generate over 75% of their sparks using nukes – and have used nuclear power – without any serious incident – for over 50 years: the first plant kicked off in 1962.

Nuclear power is the only stand-alone thermal power source that is base-load and which does not emit CO2 emissions when generating power.

However, among those who fear the Planet is about to incinerate more than just a few of their number have reached the bleedingly obvious conclusion: THESE THINGS DON’T WORK – on any level.

Among a whole tranche of eco-warriors, the seemingly undying love affair with ‘wonderful’ wind is over.

The number of cases involving turbines collapsing, self immolating or throwing their blades to the four winds (aka “component liberation”) has become so common that, if we were a tad cynical, we would go so far to suggest the possibility of some kind of pattern, along the lines proffered by Mr Bond’s nemesis, Goldfinger: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times it’s enemy action”.

This collection of stories from the US, UK, Germany and Canada suggests either enemy action or a product with a thoroughly hopeless design.

One woman's plea for the Ontario government to give people a break on hydro rates has resonated with thousands of people.

Libby Keenan, who operates Sunhall Equestrian Center in Amherstburg, Ont., has seen her hydro rates skyrocket. Her latest bill was nearly $600, compared to the $140 she paid several years ago.

In an open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne, which was posted to Facebook, Keenan candidly shared her frustrations with taxes, tolls, government fees and hydro.

"I work hard, seven days a week," she wrote. "I live exceptionally frugally, I have spent 30 years paying off a mortgage on a beautiful farm I can barely afford to keep. My heating and hydro costs are much higher per month than my mortgage."

Her post has been shared more than 20,000 times and has drawn nearly 3,000 comments.

"I was a little surprised, then I was a little overwhelmed," Keenan said about the popularity of her letter.

Keenan was also taken back by the number of women her age that had similar stories about struggling to pay their hydro bills. Dozens of women between the ages of 58 and 69 reached out to Keenan, sharing their experience.

Before the overwhelming response to her letter, Keenan felt a level of shame as she realized she was slowly moving out of the middle class to being more poverty stricken.

"What I realized is how many people in this province are going through the very same thing," she said. "I felt much less alone, for one thing."

Keenan has dug into her savings to help pay her bills, saying she is close to being "one car repair or one mechanical breakdown" away from closing down her business.

She says the province should do more to help people when it comes to hydro.

"I'm not costing you a penny right now, but if I give up and go in the welfare line, then you'll be looking after me," she said. "I don't know why they would try to put people in a position where they can't afford to keep going because they're going to have to carry them anyway."

“The legal implications for the wind industry are significant. The use of inadequate and out-dated planning guidelines may come back to haunt the industry, planning authorities and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE).”